


The Second Time Around

by transfixeddream



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-17
Updated: 2011-05-17
Packaged: 2017-10-19 12:17:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/200772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transfixeddream/pseuds/transfixeddream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jared's been regretting how things went down with Jensen for months. His plan was to avoid Jensen completely; his mother, however, doesn't really approve.</p><p>Also posted <a href="http://transfixeddream.livejournal.com/95324.html">here</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Second Time Around

**Author's Note:**

> Written for silverbullets for the prompt of hardware store!

It turns out that even when you're a high school graduate, Saturday morning cartoons are still pretty much the shit. Jared's content with this revelation, considering he has a giant bowl of Lucky Charms in his hand and his feet propped up on the coffee table. His momma takes it upon herself to come in the room every ten minutes and scold him for putting his feet there, but it's only half-hearted so he doesn't hesitate to put them back up again the second she goes back into the kitchen.

By the time the third cartoon is ending, Jared feels like he could spend the rest of the day on the couch and be totally fine with that. Except then the doorbell rings and his mother yells that she has her hands covered in bread dough, and Jared reluctantly pushes himself up off the couch and heads for the door.

"I'm coming!" he yells the doorbell rings again. When he reaches the door he pulls it open a little too quickly, a mistake he quickly regrets when his stomach tightens and makes a serious threat of releasing the entire bowl of Lucky Charms he'd scarfed down on the floor.

"Jensen," he says, kind of dumbly. Jensen smiles, one that's totally awkward, and Jared can't quite grasp the scene in front of him; he honestly expected that the next time would be at a wedding or funeral or something.

"Uh, hi," Jensen says, with a short wave that should look stupid. That should look stupid. "Your mom--she wanted me to come over?"

"Is that Jensen?" Jared's mother calls out, right on cue. Ten seconds later she's hip-checking Jared out of the way, her hands covered in flower and excess dough. "Jared, don't be rude. Come on in, Jensen. I just need to get the money in my purse."

Jared watches his mother run back into the kitchen, then takes a slow look at Jensen, who barely steps in enough to warrant closing the door. Jensen's been home from college for nearly two weeks now, but Jared hasn't seen him since the end of December. He looks pretty much the same as he did on New Year's Eve, except maybe a little more tanned. He's clean-shaven, and Jared's eyes dart to his lips without really meaning to.

"Um," Jared says, directing his gaze to over Jensen's shoulder. "Money for what?"

"Your mom wants me to build a couple of bird houses," Jensen says. His voice is soft and low, like he's choosing his words carefully before he says them. "So she's giving me the money to get some stuff at the hardware store for them."

"Oh. Cool," Jared adds, super intelligently. Jensen nods, but doesn't say anything else, and it feels like the most uncomfortable moment they've ever shared. No, that's a lie; this is only the second most uncomfortable moment they've ever shared.

His mom is fast, thankfully, and she's soon handing Jensen a couple twenties and smiling sweetly as she steps back a little. "If you don't mind, Jensen, I'm sure Jared would love to help you out. Just so it's not so much work for you."

" _Mom_ ," Jared starts, and then bites down on his tongue when his mother shoots him a scolding glare.

Jensen looks at him carefully, and then says, "It's not that much work to do, ma'am. It's fine."

"Nonsense," Jared's mother says, and Jared has no delusions why exactly his mother suddenly needed two new bird houses. She smiles and puts a hand on his arm. "It'll give Jared something to do other than watch cartoons all day. Right, Jared?" She says it with firm authority, practically daring Jared--or hell, Jensen--to disagree with her. He hasn't told her anything regarding him and Jensen, but Jared figures she came to her own conclusions. Best friends to complete avoidance is probably not the hardest thing to figure out.

"Yeah, sure," he says, and then follows Jensen out to his truck.

*

Jensen's truck is old and rusted, a piece of crap even when it was his fathers, before he'd given it to his son. Jared's always liked it, mostly because he got to call it a shitty truck and have Jensen defend its honor half-heartedly. He gets in and stays as close to the door as possible, feeling stiff as he reaches for the seatbelt. Jensen doesn't say anything, just slides in and does up his own seatbelt and starts the truck. Country music drifts in, gentle chords playing low; Jensen's had this truck for nearly two years and in that time he hasn't changed the cassette tape once.

He keeps his eyes focused on the houses outside of the window, watches them go by with pale colors. It's not long before Jensen starts humming along to the stereo--Garth Brooks, "The River," which is pretty much Jensen's favorite song ever--and Jared kind of relaxes a little. The entire reason he was wary of even seeing Jensen again was the very real concern that Jensen would call him on his shit last December. But Jensen's just driving, keeping the silence as unawkward as he can with his soft humming, and it's okay.

Maybe, he thinks, he didn't totally fuck this friendship up.

"So," Jared starts, and then clears his throat. "How many bird houses does my mom want?"

Jensen glances over at him, eyes a little surprised for a second before he smiles slightly. "Just two, so it shouldn't take that long. You have any idea how to make 'em?"

Jared huffs and shakes his head. "No. I'm not exactly good with building shit."

"Hey, me neither."

"Oh, come on, no way. That's not true at all," Jared fires back, and it's not. "You made like, ten shelves in woodshop senior year. Those've gotta be harder than putting together a bird house."

Jensen just smiles and shrugs. "Guess we'll see."

They lapse into silence, but it's completely different than when they got into the truck. It feels normal almost, to the point where Jared ends up glancing out the windshield while smiling at nothing.

"Uh, so, hey," Jensen says. Jared turns to him, but Jensen stares straight ahead, one hand releasing and clenching around the rubber of the wheel. "You and Sandy. Are you, uh--you know. Are you guys still together?"

"No," Jared says carefully. He considers it a success that he manages to keep his tone somewhat normal. "Why would we be?"

Jensen shifts in his seat, glances up at his rearview, and shrugs casually. "I don't know. I just--thought you would be, I guess."

Jared curls his hand around his kneecap just so that he won't make a fist. "I'm gay, Jensen. I figured you of all people would've gotten that message loud and clear." If it comes out a little clenched and tight, well.

Jensen takes one quick look at Jared before nodding. "Right," he says, and then goes quiet. Jared doesn't expect him to say anything else during the drive, and he doesn't.

He's just not sure why he wishes that Jensen had.

*

Jared scans the rows with as much scrutiny as he can muster. He's sure it's beyond pathetic that he can't make a decision about which hammer to choose, but it's not his fault; there's just too many, ones that are clawed, ones that have larger heads, ones with rubber grips and ones without. He doesn't want to get the wrong one and look like a moron, considering the fact that Jensen only asked him to get a hammer and a box of nails while he himself went to get everything else.

And well, truthfully, he needs as much time alone right now as possible. He's not really pissed at Jensen for bringing up Sandy, mostly because he's not even sure he wouldn't ask the same if he were in Jensen's shoes. But still, he's kind of... whatever at Jensen's blatant disregard for last year.

"Hey, did you get the stuff?" comes Jensen's sudden voice right behind Jared, knocking him out of his thoughts and nearly causing him to crash into the hammer display.

"Um, yeah," Jared says quickly. He grabs a hammer off the wall, a large, clawed one, and turns around. His face feels hot, and it's probably beet-red, but Jensen just glances down at Jared's selection and smiles. It's small and barely visible, but it's there.

"Great. You get the right nails?"

Jared nods and holds them up. The nails were easy to find; Jensen told him exactly which ones to get so that was a matter of remembering the name and grabbing a box. Jensen just didn't bother telling him what kind of hammer to get--possibly because that should have been obvious to anybody who wasn't Jared.

"Alright, awesome. I have everything else," Jensen says, and then he smiles and leans in close, arm reaching over Jared's shoulder. "Um just--"

Jared loses the ability to breathe for a second, because Jensen is inches from him and leaning into him, sharing his air, and Jared's mind goes back to midnight on New Year's. Jensen's aftershave burning in his lungs, Jensen's shirt soft curled in his fingers, Jensen's lips warm against his own for the short seconds before Jensen pushed him away. _What the fuck? I have a boyfriend, Jared, and_ Christ _, you've got a girlfriend,_ and, _Shit, Jensen, I'm sorry, I shouldn't've, I. I have to--I've gotta go._

Jensen pulls back and Jared's jerked back to the present. Jensen must catch the danger of the close proximity because he takes one large step back before holding up the hammer he just took off the shelf. "Uh, you want something a little smaller," he explains. "Something that's easier to handle and hold on to."

"Right, yeah, of course. I just figured bigger was better, or, uh, whatever." Jared nods stupidly and puts the one he picked out back on the wall.

"Not necessarily," Jensen says with a casual shrug. "It's not the size of the hammer, but the nail you're throwing it at."

Jared just stands there, gaping and looking like a deer in the headlights for a moment, thinking maybe he heard him wrong until Jensen smirks. Then the laughter kind of bubbles out of him, too loud and too strong considering they're standing in the middle of a hardware store. It's not even that funny, truthfully, but Jared just cannot stop laughing for a solid minute, and Jensen goes from smirking to laughing along, too. It feels good to laugh at dumb shit with Jensen again.

"I can't believe you just said that," Jared says once he can breathe properly.

Jensen shrugs, but he's grinning now, wide and bright, and it looks good on him. "Yeah, y'know, me neither, but what can I say? Must've spent too much time with you in my youth." Jared huffs but can't quite shake the smile threatening to break back out on his own face. Jensen has that sort of affect on him. Or at least he used to.

"C'mon," Jensen says, jerking his head towards the entrance. "Let's get out of here."

*

Building a bird house ends up being harder than it looks. Jared ends up banging his thumb four times, swearing loudly each time; Jensen only ends up banging his once, but he spits out filth for a good thirty seconds before he gets back to work. The roof is annoying to do, and then connecting it to the frame is even more annoying. Jared's sweating by the time they're finished, no thanks to the Texas heat, and there's sawdust stuck to him all over.

"Okay," Jensen says, swiping his hand across his forehead. "I say we should take a break before painting those bastards."

Jared nods and gets off his knees. "I say that's an _awesome_ idea."

His mother brought them out two bottles of lemonade earlier, half frozen so they wouldn't get too hot too quickly. The ice is completely gone from them at this point, but the lemonade is still a little cool, and Jared drains almost all of what's remaining in his with one quick drink.

He watches Jensen through his peripheral, takes in the smooth bobs of his Adams apple as he chugs his own juice. His neck is tan and wet, and Jared shakes his head, wipes his mouth with the back of his hand before turning to glance at the house. He's been able to wipe away almost all non-platonic thoughts about Jensen the past few months, but Jensen back in the flesh kind of screws with all of that.

By the time he turns back around, Jensen's finished with his lemonade and is looking at him. Jared feels hot, in a way that has nothing to do with the sun.

"Hey," Jensen says, quietly. "Uh, can we talk for a sec?"

 _No, we really can't,_ Jared wants to say, because there's no real question to what Jensen wants to talk about. Instead, he just chucks his bottle across the lawn--figures that his momma's gonna yell at him later for it but he doesn't care right now--and shrugs. "Figured we got to say everything that night, yeah?"

Jensen snorts and shakes his head. "Don't think that really qualifies as a talk, Jared. Especially seeing as how you goddamn took off two seconds later."

"I don't know. I sure got enough out of it," Jared says. He knows he's being dismissive, but he can't really bring himself to care. Not when he knows what's coming up.

"Oh yeah? What'd you get out of it?" Jensen asks, looking determined, or pissed. Maybe both.

"I got a _thanks, but no thanks, Jared._ Gotta say, pushing me before that? Nice touch."

Jensen's shaking his head intermittently. "That's what you got. Really? 'Cause, man, that wasn't a _no_ , that was a _not right now_."

Jared huffs a breath. "Oh? Is there a difference?"

"Yeah, Jared." Jensen takes a step closer, eyes narrowing just slightly. "There is a big fucking difference."

Jared swallows hard at the sheer determination in Jensen's voice. His jaw is set, and he's maybe a foot away, and Jared's rapidly losing brain function.

"Look," Jensen continues after a moment, "it wasn't that I didn't want that, or--or _you_ , just. Shit, Jared. We had people then, man, c'mon."

Jared nods stiffly, because yeah, he gets that. He gets that the timing of everything was fucked up, but-- _still_. He pauses then, and plays back what Jensen just said. "Had?"

For a bare second, he swears he sees Jensen smirk. "Had," he confirms. And Jared, well. Jared's honestly not sure what the hell to say about that. Jensen said no because he had a boyfriend, Jared had a girlfriend, and the timing wasn't right. But now.

"So, you," Jared starts, and then takes a step toward Jensen. "So you're telling me that, right now, you're--"

"I'm single," Jensen says, and Jared nods.

"Yeah. So, if I kiss you right now," Jared says, taking another step forward, "are you gonna push me away?"

Jensen smiles then, almost predatory, and shrugs. "See for yourself."

It's as good an invitation as any, and Jared doesn't even consider hesitating, just moves the extra few inches and fits his mouth over Jensen's. It's kind of the same as the first time, when things start; Jensen grunts into it and kisses back, his hand coming up to clutch the back of Jared's neck. Only instead of pushing him away, Jensen's tongue slides over his lip and presses in, slicking its way and it's good, more than good--fucking _fantastic_ and Jared groans and presses up tighter against Jensen. He can't help but feel a little relieved, at least until Jensen effectively cuts off all of his ability to think.

Jared's head is swimming, blood is pounding in his ears, the smell of Jensen is filling his lungs, and he feels like he's going to explode. It's too much, too soon, yet not even close to enough. Jensen's mouth is hot and wet, his tongue fat and quick as it darts into Jared's. Jared squeezes his eyes shut and chases Jensen's tongue with his own, fingers clenching into Jensen's forearm. Jared manages to collect himself enough to lick across Jensen's lip once more before shoving Jensen hard.

Jensen stumbles back hard, falling ass-first on the grass. He looks up quickly, glaring and a question forming at his lips.

Jared smirks and shrugs, says, "Figured you needed a little reciprocation." It's almost comical, really, how wide Jensen's eyes get before they narrow again, but Jared doesn't give him a chance to say anything, just drops down and kisses him again.


End file.
